Are we winning the junk food war?

Schools are taking a lead role to create a new food literacy

Students at Hastings Elementary take part in Project Chef at the school in Vancouver, B.C., November 29, 2012. Project Chef teaches kids how to cook nutritious and easy to make meals. Dozens of kids will be given a cooking lesson by Barb Finley the organizer of Project Chef.

Photograph by: Arlen Redekop Arlen Redekop
, Vancouver Sun

It might be years before we know for sure if B.C. has scored any kind of victory over childhood obesity and its even uglier cousin, child hunger. Health trends and statistical analysis are both stubbornly laggy.

But I feel safe declaring that there is more healthy food in schools than at any time in my life. In many districts, the school canteens selling pop, chips and candy — a staple of the student diet in my high school, which had no cafeteria — have been gone so long they aren’t even a memory.

Things aren’t perfect. For instance, teens march in droves to the local stores near my town’s high school at every break to load up on candy, which PetroCanada and The Bargain! Shop happily stock in great piles.

My own son leaves for school each day without a lunch. It was a battle for years and I lost. When he said I could force him to take food, which he would then throw in the garbage, I threw in the towel. I get up most mornings and cook him a large, hot breakfast and then let him fend for himself until school lets out.

He’s in Grade 12, independent and intensely private. I choose to fight the battles I can win.

And the debate over what our children eat at school and what is appropriate has historically been a bit of a battleground, not just at home, but at every level of government, too. Getting junk food out of schools took 20 years and it still isn’t a decisive victory, but there are ministry guidelines for food and beverage sales in schools.

A Toronto-area elementary school made the news recently for policing what kids bring in their lunch bags, using guidelines drafted by the school’s parents. Forbidden items are sent back home.

When I wondered on social media how comfortable B.C. parents and teachers are with this kind of snooping, I was accused of “teacher shaming.” Since both my parents were lifelong teachers and all the adults in my life as a child were teachers (not to mention my uncle and my mother-in-law) I had never really considered such a possibility.

Nootka elementary teacher Laura Clancy was kind enough to confirm what I suspected to be the case: That teachers do try to ensure their students bring healthy snacks to school and discourage junk food, but discreetly.

“At the beginning of the year, kindergarten teachers meet with the parents and send home newsletters to parents suggesting healthy snacks, because its brain food,” she said. When compliance is an issue, a school-wide notice to parents is used to avoid stigmatizing the children.

The B.C. education curriculum includes a healthy living segment in which children are taught the food groups as described in Canada’s Food Guide. It would be charitable to describe the module as minimal.

A recent study by the Conference Board of Canada, a non-profit think-tank funded by a consortium of government and industry interests, urged schools to incorporate food literacy education into official curriculum. The study cites research that suggests a strong correlation between nutritional knowledge and healthy eating habits in children and teens.

“We do cover [nutrition], but like with many subjects what the teacher brings to the table is what the kids are going to get — it’s teacher-driven,” said Clancy. Some teachers have started gardens on school grounds, for example.

But the healthy eating curriculum in many schools — including Nootka — is also being driven from the outside, largely by a phenomenally successful farm-to-school nutritional program and cooking instruction by Project Chef.

The B.C. School Fruit and Vegetable Nutritional Program connects schools to local farms, which deliver fresh produce to the school every other week, 13 times during the school year. To participate, a sponsor teacher commits to using special course materials and incorporating the fruits and vegetables into lessons.

Teachers and principals typically try to make farm-to-school foods available to all the students in the school as a stealthy way to provide healthy food to kids that show up hungry.

I’ve seen veggie trays set up in hallways where kids can pick up a snack on the way to or from gym or at any class break.

The B.C. Agriculture in the Classroom Foundation — with the support of B.C.’s agriculture industry and the ministries of health and education — is active in 1,439 schools, more than 90 per cent of the schools in B.C.

The Farm to School Salad Bar program, supported by the Public Health Association of B.C., brings fresh foods daily to salad bars at 28 B.C. schools, which students help run through experiential classes.

Project Chef is a hands-on cooking course that immerses students in cooking, food preparation and, of course, eating.

Nootka has declared a year-long, school-wide focus on nutrition, which includes professional development for teachers and eight weeks of Project Chef lessons for students.

Project Chef worked with 1,500 students in 55 classes last year and has brought its program to 88 schools over the past six years.

Nootka, like many schools, has a paid hot lunch program, but no cafeteria. My own children participated in the same program at Grenfell elementary, where meals were served in a makeshift dining hall thrown together in a recreational room each day.

Board and provincial policy shape the nutritional content of the menus, but many more schools have informal lunches — such as Friday pizza days — run by the individual schools’ Parent Advisory Councils.

“My goal is to model sound nutritional practices for children,” said Cook. “At the elementary schools especially I try to expose children to foods they might not have at home or might not see often.”

Non-pizza fare may include chickpeas, lentils, pulled pork and vegetarian lasagna, she said.

Farm to Cafeteria Canada, which provides the model for many in-school food programs, has identified the near or total absence of cooking facilities in schools as a major impediment to improving student nutrition. Their website lists philanthropic funding sources for schools that want to upgrade.

Does food literacy make a difference?

“Since we started doing Project Chef and our gardening project, I do see a difference,” said Clancy. “There are far fewer McDonalds meals being dropped off since I started teaching there.”

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Students at Hastings Elementary take part in Project Chef at the school in Vancouver, B.C., November 29, 2012. Project Chef teaches kids how to cook nutritious and easy to make meals. Dozens of kids will be given a cooking lesson by Barb Finley the organizer of Project Chef.

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